One more day

Robby's ear is still covered by the cup. When I look at the pictures I took last Friday, it seems so surreal. He has an ear....I am just not used to that. Because I don't see it everyday, it hasnt really hit me that the ear is actually there. He is so looking forward to being able to take the cup off and keep it off tomorow night. His classmates are anxious for Friday to come so they can see his new ear. They are hatching eggs in their class and the estimated hatch day is today or tomorrow. They have been counting down the days to the chicks and know that Robby gets to show them his new ear at about the same time. Chicks and ears, lots of excitement for the class

what a difference a week makes!

We took the stuff off of Robby's ear tonight for it's second cleaning. Wow, it's an amazing difference from last week! The ear is much less swollen and the stiches are less pronounced. I was amazed when I saw the difference. This was the first time Daddy and Emily had seen Robby's new ear other than in pictures. Emily said it was 'earish', which, if you know Emily seems like such a natural thing for her to say. When Robby looked in the mirror, he got a big grin on his face. The ear was still quite tender when I washed it. The skin graft on his head looked very good as well. It hurt when I first took the guaze off, but then was fine. He has one more week of wearing his ear cup and hat. Then he has to wear a special ear mold at night for four weeks.

security issues

Security at LAX was interesting. First, traveling with a seven year old does not qualify you for the family lane or priority seating on the plane. The kids have to be under 5. So here I was trying to juggle our shoes, backpacks, coats, computer and carryons in order to get them in the bins for the scanners. The TSA agent looked at Robby and wanted to know what the whole hat/cup thing was....forget how he worded it. I said Robby had surgery the week before. The TSA said he would have to undergo further screening. He sent Robby to this, for lack of a better term, holding cell. Rob had to stand there all by himself while I gathered up all our stuff. Of course, I hadn't put the computer in its own bin so that and everything it was with had to be separated and run through again. They then used a hand wand on Robby and I lifted the cup up so they could see where the surgery was. When I did that, the blue covering over the ear lifted as well, so the TSA guy got a look at the 'Frankenstein' ear. I don't think he was thrilled with that, but it serves him right for making a kid wait like that. I know he was doing his job, but Robby didn't understand what was happening and I think he was a little worried.

Itchy

Robby is doing great. He started back at school yesturday. The kids were all excited to see him. The first thing one of the kids said to him was "cool hat". He is no longer having pain, but at times the itching is really bad. Tonight he was having trouble sleeping because his ear was driving him crazy with its itching. I know it is the stiches and the healing process, but it doesn't make it any easier for a seven year old to endoure the itching. As a side note, he lost another tooth yesturday. That means he is missing his two top center teeth and one on either side of his two adult teeth on the bottom (the two center ones are adult). crazy 7 year old smil.

pictures

Here are the promised pictures. Like I said the ear is very swollen and not the prettiest thing. But still it is a really cool thing to see. If you look at his ear, you can see the different parts. The ear lobe is his original "liite ear", the top part is the skin graft. On the picture from the back you can see a thin line right at the rim of the ear, that is the full thickness graft from his tummy. The bandage came off the skin graft area by his tummy. It looks really good. A nice thin 'line' scar that will not be noticable once the healing is done.

It's an ear!

We saw the doctor this morning and he 'opened the present'. I will admit it was very odd to see this ear on my son's head, and very exciting at the same time. All things considered it looked great. A little Frankenstienish due to the stitches and the swelling. It is definitely ear shaped, it is just swollen and bruised. He has three different areas of skin that were stitched together; his original little ear, a skin graft from his head and another one from his groin area. He will have to continue to wear the cup over his ear for two more weeks. Then he has a special molded form he will wear at night for six more weeks. Robby's skin graft on his head actually looked worse than the ear. It was a rectangle slightly bigger than a deck of cards. The doctor said that area was a single layer graft. The best way to describe it would be it is similar to a skinned knee where just the top couple layers of skin are gone. In other words the graft looked like a bloody mess. Not actively bleeding, but fairly bright red from having the dressing removed and the area washed. Because it was only the top layer, there will be no trouble with the hair growing back. Actually you could see a fresh growth of hair in the graft area. Robby was excited to see his ear. He says it looks kind of gross and dirty. He does understand that it will look better as time goes by.
Then we began the journey home. As I write this we are on the airplane and anxiously awaiting landing in Columbus. Robby missed his sister Rachael, who is also his best friend. We are both looking forward to seeing everyone and spending time with them. I will post more picutes this weekend.

Chinatown 2

Robby wanted to go back to Chinatown today and it sounded good to me too. We returned to a couple of the same shops, but mainly explored a different section. Robby got some snacks to bring home to his kindegarten class, and we bought some more gifts for the family. We forgot to get the bakery items we were going to eat for breakfast in the morning. We are bummed. Another great meal of fried rice and dumplings. Robby is a dumbpling fanatic and orders them whenever he sees them on the menure. I guess I will have to start having them more often at home.
After Chinatown it was back to the hotel for packing (I can barely get the suitcases closed) and more go fish, marbles and cartoons. I am becoming an expert at Yu Gi O and Ben Ten etc.

A present

Robby has a gift from Dr. Reinisch that is nothing short of amazing. Under Robby's nike cap is a plastic cup covering bandages covering a new ear. An ear we have yet to see. It has been seven days since his surgery. I look at Robby and am reminded of a present under the Christmas tree with a tag that says 'do not open until Dec 25th' Only for us, it says 'do not open until May 13'. Tomorrow morning at 7am we will see Dr, Reinisch. He will take off all the bandages and we will see Robby's new ear for the first time. What a moment that will be for both Robby and me. Our God is an amazing God for giving Dr. Reinisch the ability to do the surgery and for allowing us the opportunity to have it done.

Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

We went to Simi Valley today and saw the R. Reagan museum. I found it facinating, but Robby was quite bored most of the time. We saw an exact Replica of the Oval Office, Pres. Reagan's Air Force One and Marine One. Several interesting displays included the suite he was wearing when he was shot, his saddle and boots, various gifts from dignitaries around the world and a piece of the Berlin Wall. There is also a 50 foot replica of the whitehouse that is like a really accurate, cool dollhouse. The museum also includes his gravesight. The museum is going through a major renovation in preparation for Reagans's 100th birthday celebration next year. It will have a lot more interactive areas and displays. I would love to go back and see it. I can see why he loved the area so much. The views in the valley are beautiful. It is so peaceful and serene. It must have been very relaxing to go to the ranch and excape the craziness that is Washington DC. He was an incredible man and did much to be admired for.

pictures!

at least for the time being I am able to post pictures again. I went back and edited some post to add pictures.

relaxing

I mentioned in an earlier post about the bilingual menue. We ate at a Korean resturant today. The menue was in Korean, English and Spanish and pictures for those of us who still needed help. We had some wonderful noodles with black bean sauce: a new Korean favorite. Gotta find a recipie. The other dishes include water dumplings (steamed), somekind of pickled veggie (yellow), pickles and a soft custard of some sort. Other than that, it was a lazy day of walking around the neighborhood and relaxing in the hotel room. Lots of 'boy' cartoons.

Chinatown

A great day in Chinatown on Sunday. As a drove into the area and saw the Chinese style architecture and writing, I felt something relax. Not the kind of relaxing you feel when you have been anxious and suddenly feel safe. The kind of relaxing you feel when you come home. I felt at ease and like I belonged here. I love the Chinese culture and people. Chinatown has a relly nice 'tourist' area with lots of shops to buy Chinese items. Robby and I did some nice shopping. They also have a lot of shops that cater to the local Chinese population. We did shopping there too. Robby got some good snacks, but no fish jerky. Yea, it is like beef jerky only made with fish. He likes it. It is not bad, just odd to our American minds. It was fun to walk through the medicine shops filled with the herbs of traditional Chinese medicine. It smelled so good. I wish I knew what some of them were used for. I think there is a lot of good stuff in the traditional medicines of the East. We had a wonderful lunch of noodles with beef, chicken, pork, squid, crab and shrimp. All for 9.99. Yum. Robby said he wants to go back to Chinatown before we leave. I wish there was a hotel there. I would love to stay in Chinatown and be able to do lots of exploration within walking distance of the hotel.
Robby continues to improve. He complaines less about his skin grafts hurting and about the itching. It is still painful if anything gets bumps, but he had no problem walking around Chinatown and less trouble getting comfortable and sleeping at night. I am so thakful to God for the quick healing Robby is experiencing.

friends and fun

Yesturday we spent the day with Reyes, Natalie and Grace. We met them when we went to China to adopt Rachael. Grace and Rachael are fromt he same orphanage. They are my kind of people. How I wished they lived closer. It was so nice to be able to visit with them and talk. Robby had a ball playing with Grace. She is so adorable. They looked really cute together.
On the way to their house, about an hours drive with no traffic, I saw a snow capped mountain. Now my midwestern brain can't wrap itself around the fact that Southern California has snow in May! I'm sorry, that midwest brain says it should be sunny and every one who isn't a super well dressed celebrity in designer clothes should be running around in bikinis with long flowing blonde hair. (ok, not the muscel bound guys. they can wear trunks). Seriously the snow in May did surprise me. This little rant, or whatever you call it, makes me wonder what people in California think of those of us who live in the mid-west.
One further note on Robby. He slept really well last night, not surprising after how hard he played. However, he has one period where he woke up and was wimpering because his ear hurt, was itchy and his cap was hot. He fussed and couln't get comfortable for about 10 minutes and then went back to sleep.

My boy is back!

Robby is at 90% today. We visited friends (more on that later) They have a 5 year old daughter and Robby spent the day running and playing with her. He rode bikes, threw balls and rough housed with the dad. it was so good to see him laughing and playing. He only really had touble when he tried to hula hoop. He couldn't twist like that because of the skin graph. He was very good about watching his ear and not bummping it. It is amazing the difference between yesturday morning and today. Thanks for all the prayers.

no tubes = happy boy

Robby got his tubes out today at 1:00. What I hadn't realized before is that one tube was under his skin about 2 inches and the other about 3. Yuk. He now looks like he has been bitten by a vampire. After getting that done, we drove up to Griffith Park. On the way we past the Chinese theater and saw (from the car) some of the stars on the sidewalk. We had lunch at a little restaruant in the park. I felt very Californiaish eating a sandwhich of avacado slices, tomatoe and sprouts on whole grain bread. Not what you would find at a park consession stand in Ohio. Robby didnt think much of it. We took a short walk and drove up to the observatory and saw the HOLLYWOOD sign. After coming back to the hotel Robby has been going strong. We played ball, computer games and numerous hands of go fish. I have discovered I am not a very good go fish player. Robby asked me how come I am not winning.
The tubes must have been really bothering Robby, because he continues to feel better and better since getting them out. More later when he is not whining at me to play.

no pictures and other things

well my success at posting pictures is not being repeated tonight. I am not enough of a geek to figure out what I am doing wrong. Sorry.

We are staying in the Koreatown area of LA. I found it humorous that the Chinese restaurant we ate at tonight had a bi-lingual menue: English and Korean. We also got a side of Kim Chee (Korean cabbage) with our lomein. It was wonderful food, except for the kim chee which I have decided is not for me.

Dr. Reinisch called late this morning. When he heard that Robby was having the amount of pain he was experiencing, even on the codine, he raised Robby's doseage. After the increased medicine and a nap Robby was doing better. He even got up and played a little. Tonight he is feeling bad again: his throat hurts, his tummy skin graft hurts, his ear itches and his head aches. Poor kiddo. He cant have more meds for two hours.

7am to 8 pm

We arrived at the surgery center at 7:00 am and left at 8:00.......a very long day. Robby's surgery went very well. Dr Reinisch said every thing went smoothly except for some unexplained bleeding at the end which they were able to stop. The recovery room was a little rough for Robby. He did a lot of thrashing as he was waking up and had some trouble breathing. He had a lot of mucus and irritation making his breathing rough and croupy sounding. After wearing an oxygen mask that contained mist for sever minutes his breathing calmed down. The bottom of his heal is really sore. I think he must have hit it on the side of the bed when he was thrashing.

During the surger they took two different skin grafts: one from his head on the left side and one from his tummy. Both those sights are causing some discomfort. He also has two drainage tubes that lead from under the skin by his new ear to two small containers. They seem to really bother him. He is unable to move his head to the left. Tomorrow when we got to the Dr's they will remove these tubes. He is taking tylenol with codine every four or five hours. This morning he much more alert and has eaten some oatmeal. His voice sounds quite strained from having a breathing tube for so long.

In addition to the drainage tubes, he has a hard cup over his new ear and will wear a skull cap for a while to hold the cup in place and protect the ear.

odds and ends

Robby thinks we have a fancy rental car because the windows opperate with a hand crank instead of automatically. : )

I know that LA is surrounded by hills, but still for some reason it surprises me evertime that I see them. Right now I am overlooking the Hollywood Hills, not sure where the sign is, I havent seen it yet. I can also see the Melrose area from the surgery center.

I am easily amused. Yesturday while driving I saw a California Highway Patrol officer on a motercyle. I laughed out loud because he looked just like Erik Estrada on CHIPS. Showing my age with that refference.

LA traffic isn't as bad as I thought it might be. The biggest differece I see is that what we consider a safe distance between cars they see as an invetation to go in front of you. LA drivers will even wave in thanks for letting them in. Also, motorcycles are allowed to drive between cars if the cars are stopped, or on the highway nearly stopped. Freaks me out when they go zooming past me.

LAX is a freakin big airport! Glad there is a shuttle to and from the rental car/terminal. I would hate to have to find my own way.

Santa Monica

We went to Santa Monica on the coast on Tuesday. It was a beautiful sunny day in LA, but when we got to the coast it was cloudy, foggy and very cool. Litteraly about two miles from the shore the fog set it and stayed the entire four hours we were there. Withing five minutes of eastbound driving we were back into sunny skies and the temp was in the 80s. We did manage to play in the sand some and collect a couple of shells. We walked up and down the boardwalk and watched the ocean. Still it was discouraging that it was so foggy and cool. We ate lunch at Bubba Gumps Shrimp Shop overlooking the pier and the ocean.

After that we drove down Rodeo Drive and went to an appointment with the surgeon.

Last night we had a wonderful Korean dinner. Not sure what all we ate, but it was quite good. I will say that I believe that I have had my first (and last) taste of Kim Chee. Not to my liking. Then we went to a Korean bakery and bought some treats. Quite good, although i am not sure what kind of fruit was in the cake like thing.

surgery day

Robby just started his 8 to 10 hours of surgery. He wasn't nervous which is good, but he was annoyed that he wouldn't get to eat breakfast or lunch today.

His surgery is called a medpor ear reconstruction. What Dr. Reinisch will use is a type of plastic called medpor that is ear shaped. This is the same stuff they use in hip replacement. He will use what he can of Robbys little ear and take a skin graft from Robby's head and his belly if needed. Once the swelling is down in a few weeks, Robby will have a normal looking ear on his right side. This wont do anything to improve his hearing, it is just cosmetic.

Before the medpor surgery

I am trying to see if I can actually post pictures. This is a shot of Robby's ear as it is now.

may 2010

First an update. Robby is finishing kindegarten this June. He loves school. The BAHA (hearing aide) has been wonderful for him. Once he started wearing it, his speach really took off. He still has language issues related to his hearing loss and learning a whole new language. He tends to drop the ends of words (common among the hearing impaired) and doesn't use pronouns and prepositions very well. Over all he is right on target for kindegarten. He is a wiz at reading and math.
If you are reading this, you probably know that Robby is going to have ear reconstruction surgery this week. I will post more about the process on Wednesday, the actual surgery date. We (Robby and Becca) are flying to Los Angeles CA on Monday May 3 in order to have the surgery with Dr. John Reinish. I hope to be able to post pictures while we are there. I have a new camera, so I will have to see how it goes. A warning in advance, some of the pictures might be a bit graphic. I will try not to post any that are too bloody etc, but let the squimish beware.